Quick barbecue orange chicken - super speedy!

I have been hearing a lot about "Orange Chicken" just recently and had been keeping my eye open for a recipe that would suit me.  Such a lot of recipes seem to involve coating the chicken pieces in batter and either deep frying them, or frying them in some way, shape or form, before adding the sauce - and I'm just not into that.  I'm not averse to colouring the chicken in a frying pan though - ostensibly frying it, but in just a whisper of oil and without the batter.

This week, I found this recipe "Crockpot Orange Chicken" from Heidi's Home Cooking blog and it was so simple that I felt it would stand up to being swiftly cooked in a wok or frying pan (or skillet, depending on where you're from!) as opposed to the slow cooker it was intended for.  However, as is my wont, immediately I began thinking about ways of broadening its flavour horizons.

So, step 1 was to make sure the seasoning was on point and as we're using soy sauce there were no worries about the salt.  However, pepper wasn't mentioned - and I wound up using both black and white peppers.  Black pepper directly on the chicken and the white pepper in the final seasoning of the sauce.

I could also see that some garlic and ginger wouldn't go amiss, however hubby is sensitive to ginger so that was out (but feel free to add some if you're okay with it!) but some finely chopped fresh garlic cooked with the chicken became step 2.

Because of the lack of ginger, it seemed as though some red chili pepper would be a good idea, so step 3 was to add a finely chopped fresh red chili and dried red chili flakes, to taste.  This was a lovely addition as it definitely helped to balance out the sweetness from the barbecue sauce and the orange marmalade, although using a dark coloured marmalade also helped in that regard as it was rather more bitter than sweet.

All together, because I had everything prepped and ready to go before I started cooking, the dish only took around 25-30 minutes from start to serve, which was perfect.

Both my menfolk really liked this dish and returned clean plates to the kitchen.  Always a satisfaction!  The flavours weren't hugely in one way or the other - both the barbecue sauce and the marmalade seemed to be knitted together with the help of the soy sauce and the garlic and chili just helped to make everyone friends.  As it was cooked so quickly, the chicken didn't have an opportunity to dry out, staying moist and tender throughout.

I served the chicken with egg fried rice, some prawn crackers and chopped spring onion sprinkled over as garnish, however it occurred to us that it would be fairly epic served similarly to crispy fried duck - in small pancakes with spring onion & cucumber shreds.  So I'll leave that aspect up to you, but do let me know how you like it if you try it!

QUICK BARBECUE ORANGE CHICKEN   (Serves 3)

Ingredients :

200 ml of a good, tasty barbecue sauce
1 heaped tbsp of a dark orange marmalade
2 tsp cornflour
1 red chili pepper, finely chopped
3 tbsp light soy sauce
a good pinch of white pepper
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, sliced finely against the grain
a pinch of black pepper
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
2 spring onions, finely chopped on the diagonal for garnish.

Method :

In a jug, whisk together the barbecue sauce, marmalade, cornflour, chili pepper, soy sauce and white pepper and set aside.

Heat the rapeseed oil in a deep frying pan or wok and add the chicken.  Season with the black pepper.  Cook over a high heat until all trace of pinkness has gone from the chicken.

Add the chopped garlic and continue to cook for another 1-2 minutes until softened and fragrant, in the residual liquid from the chicken.

Pour in the sauce and stir to combine.  Bring the sauce to a boil and allow it to reduce until a sticky glaze consistency has been reached and it is coating the chicken.

Serve, adding a sprinkle of chopped spring onion as garnish, with your choice of additional rice and a few prawn crackers for crunch.

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Heirloom Christmas Pudding

Look!  It's my first ever little, delicious, Christmas Pudding!

In our family, it has always been one person's task to produce the Christmas Puddings for the remainder.  Now obviously, when we lived in Germany, it was a tad tricky for my Nanna to get a pudding to us for Christmas - so generally, we came back to England for Christmas and got our pudding that way.  However, for the years when we couldn't return to England, my Nanna sent her recipe to my Mum so that she could make the same pudding.  We really aren't sure where Nanna got her recipe from, as she was separated from her parents due to emigration to Canada.  It is possible that she could have asked her Mum for her recipe and received it by post during this time, or alternatively, she could have picked up a recipe from just about anywhere.  Unfortunately, she has been gone these last twenty years or so and we can't ask her.

Nanna's Christmas Pudding recipe, written on Air Mail paper, having been sent to my Mum in Germany.

As the years went by and my Nanna became less able to do the serious arm-work of stirring the puddings, my Mum took on the job.  The recipe remained the same for a number of years, until the awareness of health issues began to make themselves felt in changes to the old familiar recipe.  Things like using a sunflower margarine instead of suet, for instance.  Also, people's tastes began to change and we all agreed that we really didn't like the candied citrus peel, so marmalade began to be used instead.

Mum's trusted slow-cooker recipe

Then the recipe evolved a little further, in that the slow cooker had been introduced and made it so much easier to cook the puddings.  Far better to be able to steam them in the slow cooker, where it was unlikely to run out of water, than on the hob where you had to keep checking the water levels and couldn't leave the process alone for longer than half an hour.

This year, for the first year ever and following my Mum's comments that, last year, the making of the puddings was rather more taxing than ever before, I managed to convince her to hand the mantle over to me.


Doing a quick calculation on my fingers, it seems to me that the original recipe (still in my Nanna's own handwriting from where she sent it to my Mum all those years ago) has to be in excess of 100 years old.  Knowing how - over the years - the recipe has evolved, made me want to add my little adjustment to it.  My additional fingerprint in the ingredients.  I love the thought that the puddings now have all our fingerprints - my Nanna, my Mum and myself - involved in the recipe.

I must admit that I threw all notions of making the puddings healthier, straight out of the window.  Well, you eat Christmas Pudding just once a year (unless you cook one for Easter, which does happen!), so to have a richly indulgent Christmas Pudding is entirely right and proper.

So, my puddings were made with 100% butter.  Changes to the recipe also included adding some Medjool dates - we'd found some at a local greengrocer and I'd been sent some even nicer ones to sample.  They were so juicy and delicious, it just made sense to include them.  I also steeped the fruit in non-alcoholic Ginger cordial from The Dorset Ginger Company before mixing.  This plumped up the fruit and added a lovely warmth to the base pudding flavour.  However, the biggest change to the puddings was that I didn't use flour in the recipe at all.  The mix was made with 100% breadcrumbs, a mix of 60% white bread/40% wholemeal, which made a huge difference to the texture of the puddings.

Now I know how much difference it made, because I made a small tester pudding too!  Well, when it's your first go, it pays to be on the cautious side.

So cute - so yummy!  All glamorous photographs will have to wait until Christmas!

I steamed the puddings individually in the slow cooker, each for 12 hours.  The buttery, spicy juices overflowed slightly as the puddings cooked and the house was filled with gorgeous smells that tantalised in a most promising fashion.

The time came to try the tester pudding and my heart was in my mouth as I turned the ramekin upside down into the bowl.  Would it come out in one piece, would it pour out disgustingly, or would it be like concrete?  No!  The pudding was light textured - definitely not one that would stick your teeth together, as so many of them do.  With juicy fruit, lovely spicing with the warmth from the ginger, the occasional flavour bomb in the shape of a whole cherry which seemed to have sucked up the Guinness stout and spiced rum into its hollow interior, soft prune, sticky date, earthy nuttiness and the richness of butter - it is a triumph.

I cannot begin to tell you, how relieved and happy I am that the puddings have turned out so well.  Perhaps you can imagine!  After all, I had 100 years of successful Christmas Pudding making behind me to live up to.  That's fairly heavy responsibility, for someone about to change the recipe.

So, if you haven't yet made your Christmas Puddings and are looking for a richly indulgent, light textured pud with the wisdom of ages woven through its recipe, you can't go far wrong with this one.

HEIRLOOM CHRISTMAS PUDDING  (makes 2 medium sized puddings - and a tester!)

Ingredients :

450g raisins
225g currants
225g sultanas
200ml ginger cordial with 100ml hot water
50g medjool dates, pitted and sliced into chunks
150g glace cherries, approx half of them sliced in two, the remainder left whole
50g orange marmalade
zest of half a lemon
20g blanched almonds, roughly chopped
20g hazelnuts, roughly chopped
20g walnuts, roughly chopped
50g ground almonds
half a tsp freshly grated nutmeg
half a tsp (generous) ground mixed spice
half a tsp (generous) ground cinnamon
quarter tsp sea salt
65g soft brown sugar
1 (generous) tbsp black treacle
450g softened butter
375g fresh breadcrumbs (60% white/40% wholemeal)
6 large eggs, beaten
4 tbsp spiced rum
170ml (approx) Guinness Foreign Extra Stout.

Method :

1.  Place the raisins, currants and sultanas into a very large bowl.  Mix the ginger cordial with the hot water and pour over the fruit.  Cover with cling film and leave for 30 minutes in a warm room.

2.  Uncover the fruit and give them a stir.   Next, add the dates, cherries, lemon zest, marmalade, almonds (both chopped and ground), walnuts, hazelnuts, nutmeg, mixed spice, cinnamon and salt.  Give everything a good stir to mix the spices through evenly.

3.  Next, add the soft brown sugar and the treacle and stir again, until the treacle has been mixed through thoroughly.

4.  Add the softened butter.  Put your spoon to one side, make sure your hands are spotlessly clean, your sleeves are rolled up - and scrunch the butter into the fruit mixture with your fingers.  Once it is evenly spread, add one third of the breadcrumbs and scrunch again to incorporate them into the mix.  Repeat until all the breadcrumbs are included and the butter is evenly spread.

5.  Add the beaten eggs.  You can go back to using a spoon if you like - but I found using my hands to be so much easier, as you can feel the texture of the mix.  Continue to mix until the eggs are completely combined.

6.  Add the rum and half the stout.  Stir well to combine.  Now how much of the remainder of the stout you include, depends entirely upon how wet the mix is by now.  The end result you are after, is thick enough to clump together on a spoon, but wet enough to be able to drop easily from the spoon, if turned.   So continue to add the stout until the correct texture has been reached.

7.  Using a little additional butter, grease your two pudding basins liberally - and a tester ramekin if you're using one.

8.  Divide the mixture between the two basins, pressing down as you go, to make sure they are completely full.   Try to leave a quarter of an inch (at least) lip around the top of the basin, to allow for expansion during cooking.

9.  Take a square of greaseproof paper and fold a pleat into the centre.  Place the pleat over the middle of the basin and fold the sides roughly over the edges.

10.  Fold a doubled piece of silver foil with a pleat and place this over the greaseproof, smoothing it down over the sides.

Words fail - see picture!

11.  Take a piece of string and lay it across the top of the pleat, making sure you have enough spare to tie it either side - this will form a handle which will make removing the basin from the slow cooker, a lot easier.

12.  Place a large piece of string below the lip of the basin and knot it, pulling tight so that the greaseproof and foil are held tightly to the basin and the single piece of string has either end caught under the tightening string.  Knot it securely.

13.  Tie the ends of the "handle" to the tightening string, remembering to leave room to get a finger underneath!

14.  You should now have a made Christmas Pudding, all ready to go into the slow cooker for the next 12 hours.  The tester pudding will need to have something to sit on in the cooker, to prevent it from submerging and it can be cooked alongside one of the larger puddings.  The water level needs to be a good third of the way up the larger pudding basin - and start off with boiling water, as this saves the slow cooker from having to do the heating of it.

Before being cooked, the puddings will last for a few days in the fridge.  However, once cooked, remove the greaseproof/silver foil combo and replace with a clean version.  The pudding can now be kept in a cool, dark place for as long as you need it to be.  I have known puddings be left for some 2 years or more and still come out looking and tasting perfect.

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Cranberry & Orange Tartlets (or how to use up a few leftover Cranberries)

Still sizzling from the oven.  Yum!

This recipe is one of those happy little accidents that only happen when leftovers come together.

You see, I had some Cranberries left over from the Red Cabbage & Cranberries and although I'd used some in the Cinnamon Plums & Cranberries, I still had a fair amount left over.  They were taking up space in the fridge and were starting to look a bit sad, when lo and behold, I was left with half a block of shortcrust pastry left from the Cheese & Bacon Pasties (which you've yet to hear about).

I spent about half a day thinking about what combination of flavours I could use in a small tartlet, or maybe some turnovers (except that would really need puff pastry, so that wasn't such a good idea).

I knew I had a little of last summer's Rhubarb Jam in the fridge and thought that would make an interesting combination as the jam was very sweet and would be a good foil for the tart Cranberries.  However, upon further investigation, the Rhubarb Jam had died in the meantime and was threatening to grow fur - so that went into the bin.  Fortunately, it was only around a half a cupful, so no real harm done.

However, that had got my brain working along the lines of "juicy things that are already sweet" lines - and I remembered the orange marmalade.  It was a medium marmalade, so not too bitter, with some peel but not too much.  However, I didn't really think the marmalade on its own would be sufficient to sweeten the oh-so-tart Cranberry.  I didn't want to use granulated sugar, as it would have potentially roughened the texture too much.  I briefly pondered honey, but rejected that as being another flavour too many.  The answer, lay in the Golden Syrup pot.  Being smooth, sweet and relatively unflavoured, it was perfect.

So, I rolled out the pastry and cut out 12 little tart bases (hubby having turned the pan cupboard upside down, looking for the tart tray!).  I put the oven on to pre-heat and got a small saucepan out.

Cooled - and rather less dangerous to life & limb!

Into the saucepan, I put the cranberries (minus a few that were particularly suspect), two dessertspoonfuls of marmalade and a big dessertspoonful of golden syrup.  I heated the contents on a gentle heat until the cranberries just started to show cracks in their skins and the marmalade was all dissolved.

I felt it was important to partially cook the cranberries before putting into the tart cases, as they are hard little fellows and the 15-20 minutes cooking wasn't (potentially) enough to soften them sufficiently.

As it turned out - I was right.  I popped a spoonful of Cranberries into each tart case and followed up with a little of the orange sauce - but not too much, as I didn't want them to overflow everywhere and I knew that the Cranberries were very likely to release more juice as they cooked.  Into the oven they went, while I did the dishes.

15-20 minutes later and out they came.  The Cranberries were cooked perfectly and although the contents had overflowed a little, I had no problem getting the tarts out of the pan - so long as I didn't wait for them to cool down!  If you let them cool down, I suspect you'd need a jackhammer to get them out.

They are a gorgeous little mouthful.  Two bites big, they release their tart Cranberry flavours onto your tongue, whilst the slightly savoury note from the shortcrust pastry provides a stalwart backbone from which to launch.  Very quickly, the orange of the marmalade breaks through, followed by a hint of syrup.  By then, your mouth is watering and you're ready for the next one!

I have to admit that we didn't stop to do anything fancy with them by way of a dessert, but I know they'd be fabulous with ice cream, cream, creme fraiche, greek yoghurt or even custard.  Anything except a piece of stilton, I'd say!  Although, thinking on ....

CRANBERRY & ORANGE TARTLETS  (makes 12)

Ingredients :

250g shortcrust pastry
200g (approx) fresh cranberries
2 tbsp medium cut orange marmalade
1 tbsp golden syrup.

Method :

1.  Pre-heat your oven to 180deg C/350deg F/Gas 4.

2.  Roll out the pastry fairly thinly and cut out 12 discs to fit inside your tart tins.  Press them in gently, making sure that no air bubbles remain underneath.

3.  Place the cranberries, orange marmalade and golden syrup into a small saucepan and heat gently, until the cranberries are showing signs of their skins cracking and softening a little.  Do not cook until they are soft & squishy - you want them to just demonstrate that they're starting to cook.

4.  Place a spoonful of cranberries (without sauce) into each tart shell, then go around and place a quarter of a tablespoonful of sauce into each tart shell.

5.  Put the tarts into the oven to bake for 15 minutes, then have a look at them.  If the pastry appears to be fairly pallid still, leave them to bake for another 5-10 minutes, but keep an eye on them as you don't want the cranberries to burn.  They are done when the pastry has turned a golden brown.

6.  Remove the tarts from the tin as quickly as possible while they are still hot - try not to get any of the sauce onto your fingers, as it is at an evil temperature and will burn - or they will weld themselves to the tart tin.  Place each tart onto a cooling tray and wait patiently until they're cool enough to handle safely!

7.  Fight off the ravening hordes, whilst attempting to serve.

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